According to the book description of Combat Chaplain: A 30-Year Vietnam Battle, “Chaplain James D. Johnson broke all the rules to be with his men. He chose to accompany them, unarmed, on their daily combat operations, a decision made against the recommendations of his superiors. During what would be the final days for some, he offered his ministry not from a pulpit but on the battlefields -- in hot landing zones and rice paddies, in hospitals, aboard ship, and knee-deep in mud. He even found time for baptisms in the muddy Mekong River.

"You've never really lived until you've almost died," writes Johnson, one of the youngest army chaplains at the time. Through his compelling narration, he takes us into the hearts of frightened young boys and the minds of experienced men. In Combat Chaplain , we live for eight and one-half months with Johnson as he serves in the field with a small unit numbering 350 men. The physical price can be counted with numbers -- ninety-six killed and over nine hundred wounded. Only those who paid it can understand the spiritual and psychological price, in a war that raised many difficult moral issues. "It placed my soul in the lost and found department for awhile," Johnson writes.

Also provided here is an in-depth look at the "Mobile Riverine Operations," a rare joint effort in which the U.S. Army and Navy combined forces. Johnson describes the workings of the flotilla and the complexity of having these two military branches in combat operations.

This is one man's chronicle of Vietnam and the aftermath of war, of his coming to terms with his posttraumatic "demons," and his need for healing and cleansing which led him to revisit Vietnam twenty-eight years later. Veterans of the Vietnam war and other wars, their family members, pastors, chaplains, mental health workers, and anyone who has experienced trauma will find this story of interest.

One reader of Combat Chaplain: A 30-Year Vietnam Battle said, “Superbly captures the personalities and events in the lives of the young men who went to Vietnam in the 1960's. Real people such as Hardluck Tony and others come to life in a heartwarming way as they push on day to day in an environment that was unquestioned at the time, and unsullied by the broader political issues that would follow their sacrifice. Very eloquent in style and content and well worth the time to read if one is seeking to understand the personal dynamics of this war.”

One reader of Combat Chaplain: A 30-Year Vietnam Battle said, “I thought this was a excellent read ,this man is truly a man of God ,Thank God for what he did for the men and souls of those he came into contact with and I wish him much happiness for him and his family ,and Pray for him now, he is a American Hero!110%.”